More of the Same This Week on the Currency Markets?

Welcome to yet another week of currency news to get through. Let’s see whether the pound could come out on top against other currencies this week.

An overview of the currency markets for August 14th – August 18th, 2017

As we began the week, the pound stood at 1.2979 against the US dollar. However, this dropped continuously over the first three days of the week. So, by the time Wednesday evening arrived, it could only muster an exchange rate of 1.2869 against the American currency. It could have been worse, but with no movement on Thursday, we left it very late to achieve anything of note this week. The pound did increase slightly on Friday, rising to 1.2874, but this was still one cent lower than the opening rate had been five days earlier.

Moving on, we began the week on 1.1032 against the euro. However, the first two days here went much the same way they had against the dollar. So, by Tuesday evening, we’d reached 1.0971. A mild rise occurred the following day, taking us to 1.0989, but after that, and a static Thursday once again, we had another drop to close the week on Friday. This meant the pound had dropped to 1.0966 come Friday evening.

Things were not going the way of the pound thus far, but could they change sometime soon? Again, the answer was no, since the progress – or lack of it – here followed that seen against the US dollar. A drop occurred on each of the first three days once the pound began trading on 10.148 this week. This took us back to 10.066 by Wednesday evening. With nothing happening on Thursday, a one-day rise to 10.070 on Friday was not enough to produce the good result we had hoped for.

Our fourth stop takes us over to New Zealand, where the pound started on 1.7815. While the pattern was a little more unpredictable here, we began with two poor days that meant the pound had dropped to 1.7687 by Tuesday night. A rise to 1.7749 was better on Wednesday, but by the time the week was up, we were even lower, on just 1.7584 by the day’s end. Where would this leave us against the Australian dollar, where things often progress in a similar manner?

We opened on 1.6506 against the Aussie dollar, but there would be no good news here at all this week. Three bad days opened the week, which meant that by Wednesday night, the pound was much poorer on 1.6378. Nothing occurred on Thursday, and with another bad result on Friday, taking us back to 1.6263, it was clear this was a week that was best forgotten.

Notable events in the world of currency

A poor showing against the Canadian dollar

Things didn’t go according to plan here, as the pound began trading on 1.6499 on Monday morning. It then dropped steadily through the week to reach a low of 1.6294 by Friday night.

An early rise translates to another disappointment against the Swiss franc

From an opening rate of 1.2488 on Monday, and a rise to 1.2560 that evening, the pound eventually slid to close the week on 1.2377.

A slightly better result against the Icelandic krona

At least things got better here, although it was an up-and-down week. The pound started trading on 137.329 this week, and rose to finish it on 138.757.

Well, with those disappointing results, this was indeed a week that was best consigned to history and forgotten about at speed. Perhaps things will improve soon, but for the moment it looks as though this week was all about falls for the British pound. It achieved nothing at all that was memorable for the right reasons, even though it did manage a slight improvement against the Icelandic currency. This was far from impressive, and it meant the pound was struggling to regain ground at the start of the next week. We shall be reporting on that very soon, so don’t miss it.